Red Velvet S'more Bars

Anyone still there??  Anyone??  Geez it's been a long time since I've posted.  Almost three months to be exact.  This blog is something that I've been (for the most part) pretty regular with for quite some time and then I just stopped cold turkey not too long after Thanksgiving.  [pun intended]

I guess I could come up with some pretty good excuses:

1. I battled a gnarly sinus infection for about 8 weeks there.  No lie.  Nothing would get rid of it.  The netty pot became my best friend.

2. Then I got the flu.  For the first time.  Ever.  It was awful.  103.7 degree temps are no fun.

3. Because of the aforementioned excuses I lost my sense of smell and thus taste.  And when you can't taste you can't cook.

4. Who wants to eat food prepared by someone who's sick???  Even if I had cooked something, I wouldn't have felt right asking someone to eat it.
5. I still haven't been able to transfer all of my old food photos onto my new laptop and thus can't blog them.
6. By the time I get home and cook something there is ZERO daylight left which means I can't take photos in our sunroom the way I like.  I've tried shooting with artificial lighting and I never can get it to look the way I want it to.

And honestly I just needed a break. I tried to take a break here and there for a while, but 1 or 2 weeks just wasn't enough. I needed a breather. This blog is just a hobby, but it takes a great deal of time and I think I just got burnt out.

I felt like every post there was an apology for the week of silence followed by a promise that I was back in action. But really I just needed to step back from everything a bit.

So for my return post I wanted to feature something that I absolutely loved.  And these red velvet s'more bars fit the bill :)  I always loved sitting around a fire, whether I was camping or just in someone's back yard, and toast a marshmallow until it turned that perfect golden color.  That meant it was just crispy on the outside, but still warm and not burnt to a crisp on the inside.  And of course you always had to have half a Hershey's bar for each smore.  I don't know how some people can use just one or two of those tiny little squares.

This recipe is the perfect solution when you want to have a great comfort food-type dessert for a get together, yet you don't have a fire pit in sight.  These little guys were super easy to make and certainly won't last long once you bring them out!

 

*More pics coming tonight!  Apparently they didn't save on the draft, but I didn't want to delay the post just for that reason. 

Oooey Gooey Red Velvet Chess Squares

Every Wednesday night growing up I would eat dinner at our church before whatever activities I had on hand.  The food was always the very best kind of down home Southern food you can imagine: fried chicken, green beans flavored with ham hocks, homemade biscuits and sweet tea. If it was something your great grandmother might have made from scratch it was there.

It's been a while and my memory is a little fuzzy, but I'm pretty sure a local restaurant called Lulu's came in and fixed everything.  Some Wednesday nights they would make this stuff called ooey gooey cake.  It was basically heaven in sugar form.

Ooey gooey cake is very similar to chess bars and pies.  They both don't completely firm up when done, resulting in a gooey texture. And seeing as how I'm that person who loves pulling cookies out of the oven when they're not quite finished baking to keep them super soft, this recipe hits the spot for me.

I've had the basic yellow cake-type and then chocolate versions of ooey gooey cake and chess squares, but had never tried a red velvet version.  Curious, I did a quick search of the internet to see if I could find a recipe, but to no avail.

Off to the mixing bowl I went armed with a few ingredients I thought might produce the result I was looking for.  And I've got to say I feel like I got exactly what I was hoping for.

The bottom layer of these ooey gooey red velvet chess squares is somewhat similar to that of a brownie.  But the top layer of butter and cream cheese is what qualifies them to carry their title.  These squares are really easy to make and would be perfect to take to a Christmas or holiday get together.  Or if you're like me and have a slight obsession with red velvet recipes then you can make them all year long!

Warning:  These bars are very rich and extremely addictive.  Eat one (or three!) and then give them away, lest you end up eating the whole pan.....

Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies

Two of my favorite things are red velvet cake and brownies.  I've heard of several versions of brownies over the years....blondies, Reese's cup brownies, chocolate chunk brownies, m&m brownies, ones with caramel.....you name it, it's probably been done.  But it was on Pinterest where I came across a red velvet version of these delicious chocolate bars.

I don't know what it is about the red color, but it just makes everything taste better.  After all, a red velvet cake is nothing but a chocolate buttermilk cake that's blushing a deep red scarlet color.  But I swear the color makes it taste different somehow.

These brownies were incredibly easy to put together and I loved that they were topped with a lovely layer of cream cheese.  Cream cheese just adds another layer of richness.  This addition isn't necessary in my opinion because the brownies themselves are so yummy, but I think it lends another flavor that complements the chocolate perfectly.

Look how moist those babies are...

Just a word of warning....you may need to wear your stretchy pants the day after you make these because I can promise you you're going to both lick the bowl clean and then turn around and eat three (or five) of these delicious bars :)

Those brownies may or may not be missing

because I ate them...only for photographic

purposes though :)

AllRecipes Coverage

Okay, so this isn't really a recipe post, but I still had to share.   And I realize that I normally don't post on weekend, but this was a special occasion, so I'm making an exception.

I submitted a photo to the AllRecipes website yesterday and it got voted to appear on the site's main page!  Each day members can submit photos and then site visitors vote for their four favorites.  And mine was one :)  Can you tell I'm excited?!

Below is a screen shot of their homepage right now.  My photo is the red velvet cupcake to the far right.  You can go to the live website by clicking here, however after today you won't see my photo.

If you haven't ever checked out AllRecipes I would highly encourage you to do so.  It's one of the first sites I frequented when I began venturing into the cooking/baking world, and it's incredibly user friendly.  I'm not sure exactly how many recipes are listed on the site, but it's A LOT.

My favorite feature is that for each recipe you can see each and every member photo that has been uploaded.  So instead of just seeing a nice, glossy photo of perfection brought to you by the editor/chef, you can see photos from real at-home cooks who tried their hand at the recipe.  Much more realistic if you ask me.

There are also user reviews so that you can garner feedback from other visitors.  The frosting didn't thicken up enough or the pork was really dry?  That will be noted here.

Anyhow, check it out!  Go take a tour.  Whip something up.

See you Monday!

Red Velvet Layer Cake

My mom's birthday (I won't tell you which) was this past week and for her big day she requested none other than a red velvet cake.  Red velvet is her absolute favorite and is subsequently my favorite as well.  Something about the bright red color just makes it taste better.

A while back I posted about making red velvet cupcakes.  You can revisit that post here.  The cupcakes were super moist, but almost too moist (if that's even possible).  As a result I reduced the vegetable oil to 1 1 1/4 C which fixed the issue.

Red Velvet Cake
2 1/2 C cake flour
1 1/2 C sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 1/4 C vegetable oil
1 C buttermilk
2 tbsp red food coloring
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp white distilled vinegar


Cream Cheese Frosting
8 oz cream cheese
1/2 C unsalted butter, softened
4 C confectioners sugar
1 tsp vanilla
*I doubled this recipe for the cake


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour 3 9-inch cake pans and set aside.  


Sift together flour, sugar, baking soda, cocoa and salt in medium bowl.  Beat eggs, oil, buttermilk, food coloring, vanilla and vinegar in electric mixer until well combined.  Slowly add dry ingredients and beat until smooth, about 2 minutes.


Divide batter evenly among prepared cake pans.  Bake in preheated oven for approximately 18 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean.  Turn the cakes out onto wire cooling racks and let cool completely.


When the layers are almost completely cooled you can begin the frosting.  I usually combine the butter, cream cheese and vanilla first and then gradually add the confectioners sugar.  This keeps you from being consumed in a big poof of sugar if you were to add all 4 cups at once.


Next is one of the most important steps of making a layer cake: leveling the cake.  I'm a little ashamed to admit this is a step I had skipped in the past, but it really does make such a big difference when it comes to making sure each of the layers are even.  When the layers are even they stack perfectly so that you don't have a lopsided or droopy cake.

A leveled cake on the left vs an unleveled one on the right.

Next up is the actual stacking of the layers.  I always place the top of layer (the leveled side) down to cut down on the number of crumbs I have to worry about.

Sandwich the frosting between the layers. *Notice the layers are top side down*

One of the best ways to get an even coat of frosting is to do a crumb coat first.  Simply cover the three layers with a thin coat of frosting (it doesn't have to be neat) and then place in the fridge for approximately 10 minutes.

This crumb coat ensures you a nice clean and firm (and crumb free) base on which to distribute the remaining frosting.

For this cake I decided to try something a bit different since it is a birthday cake after all.  I don't have fancy decorating skills, but loved the idea of rosettes covering the cake.  Wilton's 1M tip is perfect for this.  

After covering your cake with a crumb coat, go over it one more time to make sure you cannot see any cake peaking through.  Then use a piping bag with the 1M tip to pipe swirls (rosettes) all over the cake.

Voila!!!

Time to dig in!

And the inside of course.  This photo is much more true to color....I used a

different lens on all of the other shots.

On another note, I plan to begin selling my cakes next week.  Which means.....more cake recipes to come!! Stay tuned!!